ORCL OpenWorld Kicks Off: MKM Looks for Proof of Cloud, Services

By Tiernan Ray

Oracle‘s (ORCL) big developer and partner conference, OpenWorld, kicked off in San Francisco yesterday, and analysts are offering up their views on the event, which includes an analyst session on Thursday.

MKM Partners’s Israel Hernandez, who has a Buy rating on Oracle shares and a $36 price target, this morning writes that a major new release of Oracle Database will be the highlight of the week’s product announcements, but he thinks Oracle also needs to prove it can take advantage of the cloud:

This is an important event for Oracle, which needs to show customers and investors that it can make a successful transition to the cloud and secure growth for the long-term. We look for evidence of Fusion Apps momentum, specifics on engineered systems growth, progress on Big Data initiatives and a clear articulation of Oracle’s cloud strategy to be the primary drivers for the stock coming out of the conference. We expect a number of product announcements over the next several days, with the most significant will being Oracle 12c Database, the first major database release in five years. We also expect an upgrade to the ‘Exa’ family of engineered systems including Exadata as well as updates to Fusion Applications, Oracle Cloud and introduction of new infrastructure-as-a-service offering.

I would expect this week we’ll see lots about Oracle relative to competitor SAP (SAP) as well, so fasten your seat belts.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.